A Little Mix Up

There has been a change of plans.... So in 2012 I want to try out for Miss Teen Utah. If I run for Miss Teen and eat good greasy fat food this summer ,let's face it, the two won’t work together and that brings us to our little problem. I don't know if I should drop my goal of cooking this summer, or stop wanting to be Miss Teen Utah. If I cook all summer, and become over weight then I might not be a good candidate for Miss Teen Utah. So my options are to do this experiment after I run, or do another experiment. This got me thinking, who decides what's beautiful? Or as Alice says in the new Alice in Wonderland "Who is to say what is proper". The truth is, we choose! If we decided not to buy a fashion magazine, diet, or dress in a certain way, it would not be known as "proper".
Even after thinking about this I have decided to still run for Miss Teen Utah in 2012. Usually I'm a woman of my word, and it kills me that I have to give up one of my goals to fulfill another one. Still I won't really give up on trying cooking 100 recipes in one summer; I'll just postpone it until 2013 or 2014! Even though I promise to do this goal in three of four years, I will set a less fattening goal for this summer. I will read 10 books this summer. I understand 10 might not sound like a lot to anyone, but you have to understand that it's summer, my break from school, so I will have a lot of other stuff going on. If anyone has any suggestions for me to read please let me know! You can comment on this post, or email me at hippohmgh@hotmail.comin any sense this is reforming Julie Powell’s project, because she was chasing her goals, and in a way I'm chasing mine too!

"I keep thinking: I know I'm holding back. I know I'm waiting. I know I'm afraid to go forward. But I don't know how to get there from here. Sometimes I see it as a tricky mountain pass between two valleys. Other times, it's like perilous straits connecting two lands. Partly it's the fear of the trip itself, I think, but partly it's the fear that I won't be able to get back. I'll turn around and the clouds will have settled over the mountaintop. Or the waters will have risen and shifted, and there will be no way home, but that's not even the real fear, the real fear is that I won't want to come home." Ann Brashares: The Last Summer (of You and Me)
Ann Brashares is one of my favorite authors. Her books not only have an interesting plot to them, they are written in such a poetic way you can relate them to life. This quote particularly is from one of my favorite books, but it also has a deep meaning as well. My personal understanding of what it meant is: You know you can have more in your life, but you are afraid of changing. You're afraid of being your best. But mostly you're afraid that you'll like the change and that you won't want to go back to the way things were.LoveHannah

happily ever after?

"And they all lived happily ever after" is that what makes books fiction? Happily ever afters are the one things everyone wants out of their lives. I think they're actually quite boring. I'll have to say Kathryn Williams, The Lost Summer, Alice Sebold, The lovely bones, Cecily Von Zeiger, gossip girl series, Cheryl Renee Herbsman, Breathing, are my favorite authors. They don't right about 'happily ever afters' they right about hope. Hope can bond people together. Hope is honestly the thing we're actually looking for when we read! We need that little bit of faith to keep us going. If all you read was books about princesses, and people who got everything they want out of life, that's what you'd expect, and lets face it not everybody gets their 'happily ever afters'! These women are so very talented, because they can turn fiction into life. They just don't write fantasies, love stories, and fairy tales, they write real literature. Non-fiction has to be the best over all because it's endings aren't predictable like fiction! Cecily has her own twist that keeps you want to keep reading in the series, but in the mix of this she's also written a great mystery. Alice's book is just as unpredictable as any I've ever read. The lovely bones is unique in itself and Alice just compels in with a magical ending that gives you faith, and gives you a love and understanding of life that I've never experienced before. Kathryn wrote a roller coaster ride book, with a breath taking, as well as unexpected ending! Cheryl just wrote a book that changed my life completely. My reaction is unspeakable, honestly one of the best. However I have not read every book out there. As much as I love reading I never will ever read every book out there. So there is probably some books that will also inspire me emotionally as well as mentally. My dream is to work with one of these indescribable authors myself.

"Do what you feel in your heart to be right- for you'll be criticized anyway. You'll be damned if you do, and damned if you don't." Eleanor Roosevelt - self explanatory

Love
Hannah

Acting inspires the soul

Today was the first day of the new term. You know when you're in 6th grade and you feel like you're on top of the world, and then you get to 7th and you feel like someone just stole your trophy? When you get to eighth grade you have a feeling of confidence that everything is going to be alright? That's how it's like for me to start a new term. Let me explain, on the first day of school you are usually shy and only want to be with you're friends that are in that class with you. Then you realize that you actually like the class so you become more open and you feel like you're content and going to become a teacher for that class someday. Then the term changes and you're all depressed because you have to leave your beloved class, so you go to your new one and towards the end of the explanation of the rules, you feel like everything is going to be alright!

My favorite feeling in the whole is the temperature registering on my skin. I love it when its barely cold and you go outside the cool wind barely kisses your skin it just gives me the chills about how much I wish I could have that feeling all day. The same thing with the summer, when the heat barely brushes against you it makes me feel happy! I love the weather! Thank goodness for Utah's four seasons!

Yesterday was Marting Luther King Junior. day and you should all feel cheated for not getting a quote from him, well I don't want to hear any complaints so here's one from from him today "A lie cannot live." -Martin Luther Kind Junior I love this one because it explains my blog perfectly, I promise you one thing! I will tell you the whole truth and nothing but the truth, or something like that!



Onward
Hannah

Little Life Lessons

You know that silly game cube runner? Well I discovered something about it today. Take all the risk you can in life, but make sure the path you take has a back up plan or else you'll crash! Are you wondering how I could compare this to cube runner, well here's how I did it. In cube runner you have to slip through all these little cracks between the blocks, sometimes the blocks let you slip through the little cracks, but you don't always know whats on the other side that may cause you to crash. Very strange of me to compare a simple little game that will never matter in my life to reality, but I did and that over all is a miracle. I guess they're right what they say, "out of boredom comes great things" well I would rather do something then be bored all day.
Life is grand!

The quote for the day is "Once I decide to do something, I can't have people telling me I can't. If there's a roadblock, you jump over it, walk around it, crawl under it. " Kitty Kelley
Take a ponder at what that means!

Love always
Hannah

Amazing How Life goes...

Today was crazy! This has positively nothing to do with cooking, even though I did make my self a delicious salad! I'm pretty sure that I'm allowed to post whatever I want on this blog because Its a free country. Today I figured out that life is not what I thought it was! Life is not all fun and games, life is actually serious! On the bright side I did not have to figure this out the hard way! Julie Powell was right, blogging does take your mind off life. I don't know how to explain it, but when I'm blogging it feels like I'm in a parallel world where everything is okay and nothing bad can ever happen to me.
I discovered that I need to add another thing to my list of things to do before I start cooking this summer

Seventh: After I buy Julia's cook book I need to find recipe's that I'm interested in cooking.

That's about it. I picked up my amazing Uncle Luke up from the airport today! That was a treat!

Here's a quote from my favorite person in history.
"Cautious, careful people, always casting about to preserve their reputation and social standing, never can bring about a reform. Those who are really in earnest must be willing to be anything or nothing in the world's estimation, and publicly and privately, in season and out, avow their sympathy with despised and persecuted ideas and their advocates, and bear the consequences."
Susan B. Anthony
I love Susan B. Anthony and everything she stood for. I'm glad for her sacrifices that I'm able to be able to blog, go to school, and have the same privileges as men thanks to her!



Love
Hannah

The beginning.....

Honestly I don't know what I'm doing here, here as in on this blog. I just watched the movie Julie and Julia and I thought it looked cool so I decided I wanted to do something like it. This summer I plan to attempt the impossible, well not the impossible but pretty close. I plan to do 100 of the famous Julia Child's recipes out of her cook book! Maybe there might be some copy right law against it, but it's not the same goal so I think it'll be okay. I'll admit Julia Powell did inspire me, and her goal to me does seem impossible. Though if she can accomplish the impossible, why can't I.

First things first: I need to buy a copy of Julia Child's cook book Mastering the Art of French Cooking.

Second: I need to budget myself.

Third: I need to try to convince my friends to help me with this crazy idea.

Fourth: I need to read the book Julie and Julia and Julia Child's book My life in France
Fifth: I need to read Julia Child's biography and see if I could almost amount to her.

and Sixth: I need will power! Did Julia write anything about chocolate?


I leave you with a quote from Julia "Find something you're passionate about and keep tremendously interested in it." Julia Child

Thanks
Hannah